22 MODERN BLACKSMITHING 



licenses to horse-shoers in that State, be changed, as 

 "The board has failed to accomplish the purpose for 

 which it was instituted — the elevating of the standard 

 of workmanship of horse-shoers of that State. ' ' Unions 

 are all right in every place where there is only one 

 smith, let that smith unite with himself to charge a 

 living price for his work and he is all right. Where 

 there are more than one smith unions will only help 

 the dishonest fellow. Such unions live but for a short 

 time and then the smiths knife each other worse than 

 ever. 



In hard times (and hard times are now like the 

 poor, "always with us,") a lot of tinkers start in the 

 shoeing and blacksmith business. If they could make 

 a dollar a day in something else they would stay out, 

 but this being impossible, they think it better to try at 

 the anvil. For them to get anything to do without 

 cutting prices is out of the question, and so the cutting 

 business begins, and ends when the regular smith has 

 come down to the tinker's price. To remedy this we 

 must go to the root of the evil. First, political agita- 

 tion against a system whereby labor is debased. 



This is a fact, in spite of all prosperity howling. 

 Whenever there is trouble between labor and capital 

 we will always find the whole machinery of the gov- 

 ernment ready to protect capital. The laboring men 

 will not even be allowed to meet, but will be dispersed 

 like so many dogs. They are the mob ! But the 

 capitalists, they are gentlemen! When the .govern- 

 ment wants a tailor for instructor in our Indian schools, 

 or a blacksmith for the reservation, they get about 



